Garden Theater: Former Ruin Gets Well-Deserved Restoration

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor years of pornography managed to destroy the Garden Theater in Midtown. It hung on just long enough to find an investor, reopening in October as Detroit's latest win in architectural preservation. Built in 1912 as a neighborhood theater, the Garden was an early design of architect of C. Howard Crane, who would go on to create Detroit's Fox Theater in 1928. By the time restoration began in 2012, the Garden was near collapse.

Now completely restored, the Garden Theater is able to hold about 1,200 people as a standing room venue, and half that amount with seating. There are three conference rooms available to rent on the second floor, with office space on the third. A new restaurant called the Midtown Grille opened up in the adjoining storefront.